Mahatma Gandhi erased from Tripura textbook?

AGARTALA: Days after the row over Rajasthan board curricula, another controversy has erupted over the alleged elimination of Mahatma Gandhi from the Class IX history textbook of the Tripura Board of Secondary Education ( TBSE).

It has also been alleged that the syllabus in the Left ruled state glorifies communist fountainhead Karl Marx. "The book includes chapters on Adolf Hitler, Karl Marx, the Soviet revolution, the French Revolution, birth of cricket, and many other subjects, but not India's freedom movement and the role of Gandhi," Tripura History Society member Santosh Saha said.

TBSE president Mihir Deb, however, insisted that the board has based the new history syllabus on NCERT guidelines. "We did not include or erase anything. However, if something is wrong in the book, we will certainly take action."

Historian Subhashis Chowdhury said references to Rani Laxmibai and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were also absent from this year's edition, as was the Constitution.